Township seeks farm-housing balance

Three Oaks planners preparing for development.

Three Oaks planners preparing for development.

January 31, 2006|KATE SHERIDAN Tribune Correspondent

THREE OAKS -- With booming Chikaming Township to their north and bustling New Buffalo Township riding their western border, Three Oaks Township planners are gearing up for the land development squeeze likely to start pressuring their quiet, largely agricultural community. Several members of the Township Planning Commission made it clear last week that they have no intention of giving up the township's farming heritage in favor of bedroom-community status. Officials and residents in the sprawling township of just 2,900 people are taking a long, hard look at the community's land-use master plan and zoning ordinances this year, hoping to have a logical, workable land-use policy firmly in place when the developers arrive. Planners -- with help from interested community members -- are examining thousands of acres of open township land from a functional future perspective: Where to allow residential development, how dense or open subdivided lots should be, and how to head off conflicts that crop up whenever new homes and residents share spaces with long-established farming and livestock operations. Planned residential growth is fine, planners said, but not in the township's established agricultural districts. To make that point clear, seven members of the nine-member Three Oaks Township Planning Commission scratched a proposed zoning change that would have created a new rural- residential zoning district, replacing the current residential-agricultural zoning that blankets most of the township. Planning consultant Chuck Eckenstahler, who is developing the official language of the new zoning and land-use plan, told officials that the "intent of the new rural-residential district is to provide areas of the township where single-family housing and agriculture can both be located and can co-exist." From the audience, farmer Leo Jovanovic pointed out that the proposed designation virtually eliminated areas of the township "where farming is the primary land use." "In our res-ag district now, we say clearly that the main function in that district is agriculture, with housing allowed," he said. "The way this (ordinance) is worded, the main function of a rural-residential district appears to be residential housing that allows acceptable farming. To me, that's a pretty significant change." Planning commission member Karen Seifert said she was concerned that overemphasis on residential development in current agricultural districts would eventually cause local farmers to "get lost in the shuffle." She questioned why the new designation completely dropped the word "agriculture." "I feel strongly that the word 'agriculture' should remain there," she said, "so that we as ag people don't get lost in the shuffle." Commission secretary George Mangold suggested creating a separate agricultural district designation to ensure farming operations could continue unimpeded by housing developments. Eckenstahler said he envisioned the rural-residential district as zoning that would deliberately "create a hybrid." "If the intent is to retain the open character of the district, this will accomplish that," he said. He pointed out that under the new ordinance, cluster development, planned unit developments and other types of more dense housing would be allowed in the rural-residential district, providing developers pledge to leave sections of the development open or in green space. But commission members were unconvinced that such a designation would stave off conflicts between newcomers and established farms. "I share Karen's concerns, and Leo's," Mangold said. "I think our main intent ought to be agriculture. Not having a farmland preservation ordinance, a residential-agriculture district is where we can, and should, discourage housing development." The commission asked Eckenstahler to revise that part of the ordinance in order to restore farming to its primary position in the district. He'll return with new draft language Feb. 28, he said. Land and property values in Three Oaks Township have risen overall more than 33 percent since 2001, and include the steepest increases in agricultural land valuations among all of south Berrien County's farming communities. Still, that overall rate of value increase in Three Oaks pales by comparison to its neighbors: In New Buffalo Township, where the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians seem set to build their new casino, the state equalized valuation jumped nearly 83 percent since 2001. In Chikaming Township -- the current getaway-of-choice for thousands of part-time Chicago-area residents -- valuation jumped more than 70 percent between 2001 and 2005 as developers and speculators grabbed highly prized open lands for primarily pricey second homes and vacation "cottages" for Chicago-area buyers.